GREEN DAY "AMERICAN IDIOT" (Reprise)

October 09, 2004|By Len Righi Of The Morning Call

POP-PUNK I believe it was Nostradamus -- or was it Johnny Rotten? -- who said that one sign of the impending apocalypse would be the creation of a punk-rock opera. Well, say your prayers, because Green Day's "American Idiot" is upon us. And while "real punks," whoever they might be at this late date, will no doubt want to shoot a wad of snot at the very idea of such a thing, "American Idiot" isn't hare-brained. That's because Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool are savvy enough to keep "Idiot's" 13 songs on a short leash. Even "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming" -- each a nine-minute-plus song suite divided into five parts -- zip by, mitigating potential comparisons to that odoriferous slab of Queen cheese, "Bohemian Rhapsody." Another smart move: drawing on influences as diverse as The Who, Mott the Hoople, Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols and Johnny Cash. As for the concept behind this concept album, well, it's pretty vague, except that poorly parented kids drugged with media, religion and, well, drugs, often come to an unhappy end, including suicide. On that score "Idiot" is no savant.